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Harry and Louise are back. The fictional Everyman couple who starred in
a series of ads criticizing the Clinton heath care plan in the
mid-1990s has returned to the small screen – and this time, they're
advocating reform.
The campaign is backed by 5 health
organizations dedicated to making health care reform the number one
priority on the national agenda.
The American Cancer Society Cancer
Action Network (ACS CAN), the nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy partner
of the American Cancer Society, has teamed up with the American
Hospital Association (AHA), the Catholic Health Association (CHA),
Families USA, and the National Federation of Independent Business
(NFIB) to sponsor the ads. The agencies have historically had different
views on healthcare reform.
"Meaningful health care reform will only happen if it is the
top and earliest domestic priority of the next President and Congress,"
said Ron Pollack, Executive Director of Families USA. "Our diverse
organizations will work together to help make that happen."
"The status quo is no longer a real option," Pollack said
during a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC,
announcing the campaign.
The ads will run on Sunday network talk shows and national
cable networks (CNN, MSNBC, Fox News Channel, and Comedy Central) from
August 24th through September 7th and will coincide with both the
Republican and Democratic national conventions.
“With 47 million uninsured and 25 million underinsured people
in America, the deepening health care crisis is jeopardizing the
enormous progress we have made against life threatening diseases such
as cancer,” said Daniel E. Smith, president of the American Cancer
Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN). “To win the war on cancer,
which will kill more than 560,000 people in America this year, we must
improve access to quality, affordable health care throughout the
country.”
In 2007, the American Cancer Society launched the Access to
Care campaign, a national initiative dedicated to raising awareness
about the numbers and struggles of uninsured and underinsured people in
the United States. The campaign encourages Americans to make access to
care a national priority.
To learn more about ACS CAN and find out how you can get
involved in the fight against cancer, visit their Web site. To learn
more about Harry and Louise and to see the ad, check out www.harryandlouisereturn.com. ACS News Center stories are provided as a source of cancer-related
news and are not intended to be used as
press releases.
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